


Enchantment! in the Deep Roads

by HeroMaggie



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Comfort, Finding Sandal, Gen, Hugs, Lost in the Deep Roads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 01:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2329694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroMaggie/pseuds/HeroMaggie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marian Hawke helps find Sandal in the Deep Roads. </p><p>For a request for a Sandal Hugs drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enchantment! in the Deep Roads

Hawke pulled out the small fold of leather and pressboard for the tenth time in what seemed like that afternoon. It was hard to tell down in the Deep Roads, time having no meaning under the press of rock and the glow of phosphorescent mold. She opened the leather and pressboard to reveal a tiny picture. A small sketch of Mother, Father, Carver, Bethany and her – done back when Father was alive and they were in Ferelden. She remembered that they had lived in some small village near the Bannorn at the time and there had been a farmer with an artist bent who had gotten sick and had been healed by Father. Being coin-poor, he had offered to do a small drawing of the family. It had been the work of an afternoon – and work was the correct word. The twins had been youngish and disinclined to sit still.

She swiped her thumb lightly over the drawing, careful to not smear her sweat and dirt on it, folded it back up and tucked it back into her pocket. Father was gone now. So was Bethany. Mother was a mess of nerves and grief. Carver was behind her, nattering at Varric about what he was planning on doing with his share of the treasure. She exhaled into the gloom of the Deep Roads and kept moving, intent on finding a lost young man who had wandered from their group.

***

  
The glow up ahead alerted the group that they were not alone. She held up her hand and looked at Anders, the warden-in-hiding and their ace in the hole while in the Deep Roads. He cocked his head and concentrated, gave one head shake, and offered a tired smile. “Clear. No ‘spawn ahead,” he whispered to her.

She nodded and gave Carver a pointed look when he tried to push ahead. “You shouldn’t go first,” he hissed. “I’m wearing armor and you aren’t.” Hawke just narrowed her eyes, tapped her staff on the stone floor, and summoned a single ball of flame. Carver frowned but moved back. She gave one more glance behind her and moved forward towards the glow.

It was the young man they were looking for, Sandal Feddic. He was the son of Bodahn Feddic, the dwarf in charge of their supplies. Bodahn had been nearly mindless with worry when he realized Sandal had wandered off. The young man wasn’t…completely…normal. At least normal for what Hawke knew and understood. Still, he stood surrounded by dead darkspawn, unharmed and calm. She wrinkled her nose at the corpses and then blinked at the giant ogre frozen into a statue.

“Ah…Sandal?” She asked in a hesitant voice. “What happened? Are you ok?”

Sandal nodded enthusiastically and answered with a hearty, “Enchantment!”

“By the Maker, Marian, look at that!” Carver was poking the ogre statue. “That’s not ice. That’s…some sort of crystal. Think we can drag it out? Be worth a fortune.”

“You are more than welcome to try,” she said dryly. “How ever did you manage that one, Sandal?”

“Not enchantment,” was the solemn reply. The young man pressed a runed stone into her hand and beamed at her.

“Ah, thank you?”

“Boom.” Was all he said as he went to stand with Varric.

“Right. Boom.” She said with a shake of her head. “Come on, let’s get to the end of this path and see if it’ll get us around the blockage. Then we need to get young Sandal here back to his father. Sandal, Stay with Varric. Ok?”

“Enchantment!” Was the response she got, much to her amusement.

***

The road had, indeed, lead around the cave-in. Hawke had marked it on the map and then turned the group around to head back to camp. The walk back didn’t take nearly as long as the walk in. But that was pretty normal. The group had cleared out all of the darkspawn and that one giant knot of spiders and were able to travel unmolested.

It wasn’t long before they saw the glow of the campfires and heard their companions moving around. They went around a corner and through an arch and found themselves back at camp. Bartrand was in a corner of the camp pondering the maps of the deeps. Bodahn was listlessly stirring a pot over the fire. The rest of the group was milling around, waiting for orders. Hawke cleared her throat and watched Bodahn’s head shoot up at the sound.

Sandal came into view and Bodahn dropped the spoon into the pot and took a halting step forward. “Sandal? Is that you, boy?” Bodahn’s voice wavered, hope coloring the tears.

“Yes!” Sandal said on a laugh. He patted Varric and walked quickly over to his father. Before his father could do more than sob his name, he had wrapped his arms around Bodahn. “Yes…” he said on a sigh.

Bodahn clung to Sandal, shaking slightly, “Thought I had lost you there. Don’t know what I’d do without you.” He pulled back out of the hug and patted at Sandal, his eyes shiny with tears. “You come to the fire, have some stew. Are you hurt? Did the nice Warden heal you?”

“Enchantment,” Sandal replied as he headed to the fire.

Bodahn turned and looked at Hawke, his lips quivering as he fought the urge to break down into tears. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you. Anything…anything I have is yours. My life included. Thank you for my son.”

Hawke blinked and waved her hands, “No, it was my pleasure to find him…you owe me nothing.”

“I owe you everything.” Bodahn said. He turned and went back to the fire, clapping Sandal on the shoulder before dipping him a bowl of stew.

Hawke felt her eyes tear up a bit at the vision of father and son together, safe, in the Deep Roads. She patted her pocket and nabbed Carver’s hand, squeezing it. Perhaps she understood Bodahn’s sentiment a little too well.


End file.
